Fast & Furious Races to Record Box Office Opening

With an opening weekend gross of $70.95 million, FAST & FURIOUS had the biggest opening since last summer's mega blockbuster THE DARK KNIGHT, Universal's biggest opening ever and the biggest opening in April ever (per VARIETY).

Worldwide, the Vin Diesel-Paul Walker racing actioner, with vfx by Double Negative and Rhythm & Hues, grossed $30 million for a total of more than $100M.

Paramount/DreamWorks Animation's MONSTERS VS. ALIENS, last week's winner, came in second in its second week with $33.6M and a total take of $105M. The film generated $3.1 million on 143 IMAX screens domestically from Friday, April 3 to Sunday, April 5. The domestic IMAX weekend contributed more than 9% of the film's overall box office gross on less than 2% of the total screens. The IMAX release also continued to perform well internationally, grossing $1 million from 44 IMAX screens. Highlights include very strong results from locations in Russia, the United Kingdom and China. IMAX's worldwide total for the run through the second weekend is $11.4 million.

THE HAUNTING IN CONNECTICUT pulled in another $9.5M for Lionsgate for third place and a two-week cume of $37.2M.

Summit Ent.'s KNOWING also fell just one spot for fourth place and $8.15M. In three weeks the Nicolas Cage-starrer, with vfx from Animal Logic, BUF and Postmodern, has cumed $58.2M.

Bromance comedy I LOVE YOU, MAN (Paramount/DreamWorks) placed fifth with $7.7M and in three weeks has earned $49.2M.

'80s comedy ADVENTURELAND opened in sixth place, earning $5.7M for Miramax (vfx by Brainstorm Digital). DUPLICITY from Universal came in seventh place in its third week in release with $4.2M and a total gross of $32.3M.

Disney's reimagined RACE TO WITCH MOUNTAIN (visual effects by Furious FX, Proof and RotoFactory) came in eighth place with $3.2M and in four weeks has earned $58.2M.

Fox's 12 ROUNDS came in ninth place and made $2.3M and in two weeks has a weak $9M.

Building on good word of mouth, indie comedy SUNSHINE CLEANING (Overture) placed tenth in its fourth week out, adding about 300 theaters and making $1.8M and a total gross of $4.7M.

In animated features, CORALINE (Focus Features, animation from LAIKA) made another $178,148 and in nine weeks has earned $74.3M. Summit's FLY ME TO THE MOON made $20,272 in eight runs and has a 34-week total of $13.4M. WALTZ WITH BASHIR (Sony Pictures Classic) made $9,019 and in 15 weeks has a cume of $2.2M.

Box office numbers from BoxOfficeMojo.com.